When to introduce Soy Milk?

[Aithnea]

I hope this is the right forum for this sort of a question.  If not, could a Mod move it?

Well we're not dairy free in our house, we do drink soy-milk almost exlusively.  Dd just turned a year old two weeks ago and I was wondering if we could start replacing her formula (DH decided we needed to give it to her on top of my breast milk) with soy-milk.  The formula is dairy based and she'll likely have dairy milk when she's staying with her grandmother on days that I work.  I'm concerned about her being able to digest the soy-milk since she's never been introduced to it.  She's had soy before in the form of Tofu (which she loves btw).

I'm not sure if this will effect things or not, but due to DH's chrons the soy-milk has to be low fat.  Not sure if this will effect things or not.

So I guess my question is, when is a good age to introduce non-dairy milks?

Thanks

[SilverFish]

well, no way should you be feeding a one year old low fat anything, so you'll either need to get her a separate carton, or use something else. we started giving small amounts of soy, coconut and other plant milks around one year old, but not really much until i wanted to cut back on nursing a little bit around 15 months. now she'll have a small cup of regular unsweetened soy with dinner, or in a smoothie. if she were not such a good eater, i would be probably offering less plant milk and more breast milk, or offering a fattier plant milk.

however, that aside, your dd doesn't NEED any kind of milk but breast milk (and formula). if she weren't getting any breast milk (how much does she get, btw?) then i'd continue to give formula til about 18 months, especially with a pickier or lighter eater. but anyway, i feel like after 12-14 months, most kids are going to be okay with eating and drinking just about anything their families eat in moderation. 

[ShadowMoon]

We're a vegan family. DS breastfed until around age 2. I WOH fulltime and could no longer produce milk when pumping when he was around 14 months so his dad started offering him soymilk and almond milk, along with water, while I was at work. He's always been a tiny kiddo so I was glad he was getting the extra calories.

As long as you know your child has no soy allergies, I suppose anytime after the first year would be ok to introduce soy milk. But definitely go slowly until you can determine if she's digesting it ok. However, like the above poster stated, I wouldn't replace the formula with it until after 18-24 months old since she's still growing and needs the extra fats. I also made sure all soy/plant based milks I offered were the full fat versions, (for growing bodies), and that the soymilk was GMO-free and organic.

[SundayCrepes]

Definitely need fat to build brain cells. You could be compromising your child's brain by going lowfat.

Not sure why you want to give anything other than breastmilk at such a young age unless you are having pumping problems. Especially with a family history of chrons disease. You'd think it would be better to protect her gut with breastmilk for as long as possible.

Soy is high in estrogen so I try to avoid it.

My 3 year old has had chronic diarrhea since before a year. We went gluten free to help her speech delay and don't know if that's effected her poops. Taking her off dairy and foods she showed sensitive to on blood tests (cane sugar and tomatoes) took care of the diarrhea. For the first time in most of her life she is not having diarrhea 4 times a day. I am giving her a combination of coconut milk, rice dream, and Trader Joe's almond milk (none have carageenan which may be an intestinal irritant.) I think multiple foods are better than sticking with a single food.

I'd say ramp up pumping and give her as much breastmilk as possible. Try getting some domperidone to increase your supply (see www.asklenore.com or www.asklenore.info.) You could be putting her gut at risk if you are giving her other than breastmilk. And if it's for any reason other than poor supply it just doesn't make sense.